What to do about bad scratches and chips

[No_Skillz]

I've recently had a bad run in with the business end of a snowplow truck resulting in damage to my door and rear panel. I'm hoping some of you appearance/paint gurus can help me out.

I've got a gash above my drivers side door handle, which goes to the end of the panel. It's deep enough to be a long dent, and needless to say is through the paint and primer.

The rear quarter panel behind the door has a quarter sized dent in it misshappen enough to have the paint flake off and show bare metal. The paint around the area is also still flaking.

How do I properly take care of this so it does not start rusting and paint will not continue to flake off of the rear panel? It has not started rusting as I can see yet and I would like to take care of it before it does. I was planning on using a couple layers of rust converter and then a few more of touch up paint on top of that. Any tips or ideas otherwise is appreciated.

 

[baldbull]

When dealing with that much paint loss all that you can do is touch it up until you can get it in for paint. I wouldn't mess with any rust converter if there isn't any rust yet. You can even lightly sand down the area to get rid of any minor rust or flaking, then apply some touch up. It may not look good, but do anything and everything to prevent rust. This might sound strange, but I've seen guys use clear nail polish where paint started to flake off to keep it from getting worse.

 

[splattj]

The paint that is flaking is doing so because the metal underneath has lost its bond with the paint. Until the whole area is cleared of the paint that's pulled away, it will continue to flake.

As far as scratches and small chips go, you have a couple of choices. You need to get some touch-up paint. Prep the area so it's free of rust, dirt, dust, and oils.
1. You can apply touch-up until the paint is higher than the scratch. Then you can wet-sand the area down to match the rest of the paint. Then you can polish the fine scratches out with a buffer and some polish.

2. You can try this http://www.langka.com/ product out. I know a lot of people have had some good success.


http://autopia.org/forum/showthread.php?t=60889&page=4&pp=12&highlight=keyed

 

[No_Skillz]

Thanks for the replies. One more question: I got some putty to fill in the dent, do I put that over bare metal or primer the metal first and then put it on? I'm gonna go see if I can get some pictures of the damage and put it up.

 

[No_Skillz]

Here are some pictures of my incident. Sorry if they didn't come out too well, the car is really dirty from the salt and snow and dirt ect. As you can see, I've already primered the areas with bare metal to try and protect it from the elements. I just need some input on what to do next.

 

[c5chris]

For chips and minor scratches, I went to Satan to get a touch up paint.

 

[No_Skillz]

Can a mod please move this to the hangout where I might be able to get some more help?

 

[splattj]

Look, you need to clean the damaged area and make sure there is no rust and that it is oil and wax free.
You should apply the body filler directly to the metal.

After the surface is smooth and level you need to apply "touch-up" paint to the damaged areas in layers until the level of the touchup paint is higher than the original paint.

Then you need to wetsand the touchup until it is level with the surrounding paint. At this point, you will polish out the area. Good wetsanding instructions can be found here:
http://www.goodspeedmotoring.com/?page=color_sanding


Here is another good writeup:
http://www.paintscratch.com/brush.htm